I got my hair cut yesterday at Taglio - the salon next door to the wine bar Enotria, which makes it convenient for me. Bringing over a glass of wine makes the hair cut a much more enjoyable experience.
Anyway, after I was done I sat down at the bar and chatted with Brandon, the bartender, and shortly thereafter, my wine buddies Kevin Gibbs and Tom Rough walked in. Tom is the owner of Taglio and co-owner of Enotria, and Kevin used to organize Blind Night every Tuesday at Enotria. A group of 5-6 of us would meet up and everyone would bring a bottle and serve it blind (covered up) and then we'd all try to guess: grape variety (cabernet sauvignon, etc), place (country, region, appelation, vineyard), vintage and producer. It's obviously very difficult and we get more things wrong than right, but it's fun and educational. For the last year-and-a-half or so we've moved Blind Night away from Enotria (the group got too big and loud) to people's homes and restaurants that are willing to have us. Like Sushi Eye that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago.
Kevin and Tom had come in for a mini-blind night, and they let me join them so I bought a bottle and took part in the fun. I suspected that they had brought some nice stuff, so I made sure to buy a respectable bottle: a 2005 Alban Reva. It is a somewhat hard-to-find syrah from California's Central Coast (between San Francisco and LA) and usually shows well young. It's a big boy with huge fruit, so I asked Brandon to decant it and that I should go last since I knew it would need some time to open up.
We started with Tom's first bottle - they had brought two each - which clearly had some serious age on it. A lot of the fruit had receded - in fact it was probably a bit over the hill - and secondary characteristics (earth, cola, bacon fat...) had taken over. Initially, it seemed a bit oxidized, but it improved in the glass so it must have been something different. I guessed Cabernet Sauvignon, but it turned out to be a Merlot-based blend with some Cab Franc and Cab Sauv in it. That blend had me dialed in on the right-bank of Bordeaux - and I picked St. Emilion over Pomerol - which turned out to be correct. For the year, I guessed 1982 but it turned out to be quite a bit older than that. The bottle was revealed to be a 1966 Chateau Pavie - what a treat!
Tom's other wine was a 1982 Clos Fourtet (also a St. Emilion Bordeaux) but unfortunately it wasn't very good. Very bland with a metallic finish. Kevin brought a 1991 Pride Merlot (lots of Merlot tonight!) where the nose started out so funky I found it undrinkable. Fortunately, it blew off after a few minutes of swirling in the glass, and turned out to be quite good, but more earthy than I like. The wine of the night was Kevin's 2005 Herb Lamb E II Cabernet Sauvignon. I've had Herb Lamb Vineyards before - both their own wine as well as by way of the fruit they sell to Colgin and Karl Lawrence, and it's typically very good. The E II is their second wine - meaning they select the best fruit for their main bottling, and use the rest for the E II (only 125 cases made), but there was no evidence of that tonight. It showed absolutely beautifully.
My Alban was as expected huge: dark, almost black, and full-throttled with pure, quality fruit, even after 90 minutes in the decanter. Not everyone cares for this style, but for those that do the Reva is a great example of it.
That's the story of how an innocent hair cut turned into an evening of great wine.
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